UC-NRLF 


2357 
1915 

Ms 


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The  Reorganization 

of  the 

Republican  Party 

by 

MARTIN  S.  VILAS,  A.  Mn 

Member  of  the 
Bars  of  California,  Vermont  and  Washington. 


Copyrighted  1915  by 
MAKTIN   SAMUEL  VILA.B 


The  Reorganization 

of  the 

Republican  Party 

by 

MAKTIX  S.  VILAS,  A.  M., 

•f 

Member  of  the 
Bars  of  California,  Vermont  and  Washington. 


Copyrighted  1915  by 
MARTIN    SAMUEL    VILAS 


23 


5? 


THE  REORGANIZATION  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY, 

I. 

(1)  The  above  in  one  form  or  another  has  been  the  subject 
of  much  printed  discussion  during  the  last  year  and  a  half.   Men 
of  high  political  and  official  prominence  in  the  United  States 
have  ably  contributed  to  this  discussion  and  given  much  of  value 
to  the  public. 

The  serious  consideration  of  the  subject  as  an  active,  posi- 
tive proposition  carries  with  it  an  admission  of  the  weakness 
of  the  present  organization  of  the  Republican  party.  Nothing 
needs  reorganization  if  its  present  organization  be  worthy,  fitting 
and  adequate.  Prima  facie,  then,  that  so  many  men  prominent 
in  the  Republican  party  itself  have  contributed  to  this  discussion 
seems  to  make  the  case  against  the  present  organization  of  this 
party.  Probably  the  most  notable  of  such  contributions  are  the 
recent  articles  in  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  by  Ex-President 
William  II.  Taft  and  by  United  States  Senator  Albert  B.  Cum- 
mins. 

Aside  from  the  party  weakness  revealed  in  these  articles, 
that  a  political  party,  since  1860,  easily  the  most  conspicuous 
and  most  meritorious  in  America  in  shaping  the  policies  and  in 
carrying  out  the  myriad  of  measures  which  have  so  greatly  aided 
in  building  up  the  power  and  prosperity  of  the  United  States, 
and  a  party  nationally  supreme  in  1908  with  abundant  majorities, 
should  descend  to  third  place  in  1912,  be  able  to  carry  only  two 
small  states  for  its  presidential  candidates  and  to  poll  approxi- 
mately 3,500,000  votes  from  an  estimated  9,000,000  of  Republi- 
can voters  is  presumptive  evidence  of  a  fundamental  weakness 
of  organization  or  management  in  this  great  party. 

(2)  However  this  political  situation  is  viewed,  the  writer 
is  very  confident  it  is  not  begging  the  question  by  assuming  a 
condition  from  a   given  state  of  facts,  possibly  unjustified,   if 
the  query  is  made,  why  this  great  change  in  conditions,   this 
revulsion,  or  revolution. JjiJ)ijJ^lie.s^uiiment?     The  greater  num- 


ber  of  articles  written  have  assumed  that  some  other  method  of 
representation  in  Republican  national  conventions  is  the  essential 
feature.  Several  have  painted  in  vivid  colors  upon  the  canvas  of 
the  public  press  the  apparent  injustice  of  permitting  the 
southern  states,  having  in  a  number  of  them  only  a  modicum  of 
Republican  strength,  a  representation  often  greater  than  that 
of  strong  Republican  states  of  the  north. 

Senator  Cummins  in  his  article  in  the  Saturday  Evening 
Post,  date  of  November  15th,  1913,  wrote/ 'How  did  it  happen 
that  the  outcome  of  the  convention  both  as  to  platform  and  as  to 
nominations  did  not  fairly  represent  the  opinions  and  desires  of 
the  majority  of  the  millions  who  composed  the  Republican  party  ? 
There  is  no  need  to  seek  long  or  far  for  an  answer.  It  is  known 
to  all  men.  It  springs  right  at  you.  The  Convention  of  1912 
was  not  a  representative  body  in  any  just  sense.  It  could  not 
and  did  not  speak  for  these  millions  of  Republicans.  In  times 
like  these,  at  any  rate,  if  nine  or  ten  millions  of  men  are  to  be 
held  together  by  a  bond  of  common  purpose,  the  very  least  re- 
quirement is  that  the  purpose  shall  be  declared  by  a  majority 
and  each  voter  must  feel  that  he  has  had  a  fair  chance,  which 
means  an  equal  voice  in  the  council  in  which  his  representative 
sits.  *  *  *  These  facts  have  been  stated  not  for  the  purpose  of 
censuring  anybody,  for  the  basis  now  condemned  was  adopted 
by  Republicans  who  have  long  since  passed  away  and  on  account 
of  conditions  which  have  long  since  disappeared.  It  is  not 
material  to  inquire  into  the  motives  of  the  men  responsible  for 
it,  or  the  sufficiency  of  the  reasons  which  led  them  to  their  con- 
clusion, nor  need  we  recite  the  efforts  that  have  been  made  in 
various  conventions  to  bring  about  a  change.  The  vital  thing 
is  to  know  thoroughly  and  feel  deeply  that  such  injustice  must 
cease  and  that  a  successful  party  under  such  a  system  is  im- 
possible. 

Representation  so  unequal  would  have  ended  in  disaster, 
even  though  every  question  relating  to  the  title  of  delegates  to 
seats  in  national  conventions  had  been  decided  with  the  highest 
judicial  impartiality;  but  the  fairness  of  courts  is  not  to  be 
expected  in  the  stress  and  storm  of  political  campaigns  and  so 
it  has  happened  that  in  many  conventions,  and  especially  in  the 


last  one,  the  claims  of  contesting  delegates  have  been  adjudged 
mainly  with  reference  to  their  views  respecting  the  candidates  for 
the  presidential  nomination.  *  '  The  tremendous  mistake  that 
a  very  considerable  number  of  good  men  have  made,  and  are  mak- 
ing, is  in  their  assumption  that  the  well-known  differences  in  the 
political  views  of  certain  distinguished  and  semi-distinguished 
Republicans  who  have  heretofore  been  somewhat  conspicuous  in 
the  affairs  of  the  country  are  conclusive  proof  that  there  are  like 
differences  in  the  rank  and  file  of  the  party.  The  thing  to  do 
is  to  submit  all  these  questions  to  the  Convention  of  1916,  a 
convention  that  must  be  brought  together  under  such  rules  as 
not  only  will  insure  a  decent  equality  of  representation,  but  will 
guarantee  that  the  delegates  chosen  by  the  Republicans  of  a  state 
shall  actually  take  part  in  the  convention  to  which  they  are  ac- 
credited; rules  that  will  respect  the  primary  laws  of  the  states 
that  have  them,  and  for  the  states  that  have  none,  provide  a 
better,  fairer  method  of  settling  contests." 

It  is  commonly  accepted  that  the  only  present,  adequate 
method  of  expression  for  a  national  party  as  a  party  on  matters 
political  is  through  its  representatives  at  its  national  conventions. 
If  this  representation  be  inadequate,  incomplete  or  unjust,  dis- 
satisfaction, and  maybe  disruption  in  the  party,  are  sure  to 
follow.  A  kind  of  "taxation  without  representation"  spirit  will 
pervade  the  members.  The  spirit  of  freedom,  of  justice  and  of 
progress  essential  to  success  in  a  great  party  will  be  lacking  in 
connection  with  its  work. 

But  a  great  party  is  not  what  any  one  man  or  group  of  men 
declares  it  to  be.  It  may  not  be  what  the  national  platform 
of  the  party  declares  it  to  be.  It  is  what  the  majority  of  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  party  all  over  the  country  declare  it  to  be 
on  those  occasions  when  they  may  express  themselves.  Under  a 
national  primary  law,  the  work  of  national  conventions  will  be 
considerably  taken  from  them. 

Query;  Is  an  alteration,  however  radical,  of  the  method, 
or  manner,  of  electing  and  seating  delegates  to  the  national  con- 
ventions of  a  political  party  a  "reorganization"  of  that  party? 
Possibly,  but  probably  not.  At  any  rate,  the  changes  suggested 
by  Senator  Cummins  and  by  all  others  that  have  publicly  ex- 


pressed  themselves  upon  this  subject  so  far  as  known  to  the 
writer  of  this  article  are  not  in  his  opinion  sufficiently  profound 
and  fundamental  to  be  characterized  accurately  as  '  *  a  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  Republican  party. ' ' 

II. 

The  question  of  importance  here  is  not  how  such  changes  as 
have  been  suggested  and  named  shall  be  classified,  which  is 
merely  a  play  upon  words ;  but  rather  do  these  proposed  changes 
reach  the  fundamental  causes  which  in  particular  have  produced 
the  startling  transformation  in  the  condition  of  this  great  party  f 

Granted  that,  as  the  writer  believes  was  the  case,  the  Re- 
publican National  Convention  of  1912  was  not  made  up  on  a 
basis  of  representation,  accurate  or  just,  and  that  the  contested 
seats  were  usually  filled  not  on  the  merits  as  to  right  in  the  body 
of  that  convention  but  rather  on  the  question  as  to  how  delegates 
would  vote  for  candidates  for  president  in  case  they  should  reach 
the  body  of  the  convention.  Great  as  is  the  impropriety  and  in- 
justice entailed  in  this  kind  of  representation  and  in  this  man- 
ner of  seating  delegates  and  great  as  was  the  national  dissatis- 
faction resulting  from  the  action  of  this  now  historic  convention, 
first,  do  these  justify  the  members  of  that  party  in  administer- 
ing upon  its  own  all  along  its  notably  strong  lines  a  defeat  sting- 
ing and  humiliating  and  in  rejecting  in  toto  its  party  tenets, 
hitherto  regarded  by  many  with  a  respect  that  almost  touches 
the  border-land  of  veneration?  Second,  whether  the  action  of 
this  convention  upon  disputed  seats  therein  was  justified  or  not. 
and  whether  it  was  rightly  constituted  or  not,  was  the  formation 
and  manner  of  seating  delegations  of  the  Convention  of 
1912  the  actual  reason  for  the  trailing  in  the  dust  of  the  banner 
of  Republicanism?  Especially  because  it  is  remembered  that 
the  manner  of  electing  delegates  to  Republican  National  Con- 
ventions has  been  unchanged  for  many  years,  the  writer  un- 
hesitatingly answers  the  first  query  in  the  negative.  To  the 
second  query,  the  same  answer  is  given. 

III. 

What  was  the  cause,  or  were  the  causes,  contributing  most 
prominently  to  the  defeat  and  rejection  named  and  what  in  brief 


is  the  remedy  to  avoid  occurrences  of  like  character  in  the  future? 

(1)  The  Progressive  party  was  born  in  the  rejection  of  the 
action  of  the  Kepublican  National  Convention  of  1912.  The 
Progressive  platform  is  radical,  almost  startlingly  so  in  some 
propositions,  yet  its  national  candidates  received  more  votes 
than  those  of  the  Republican  party.  Was  the  overwhelming  de- 
feat of  the  Republican  party  due  in  large  degree  to  its  lack  of 
advocacy  of  measures  really  progressive  and  beneficial  in  a  time 
and  age  when  men  and  nations  are  moving  fast  in  the  creation 
and  adoption  of  almost  numberless  enactments  genuinely  of 
great  value  to  the  public  ? 

Ex-President  Taft  in  his  article  in  the  Saturday  Post  of 
date  February  14th,  1914,  stated  "The  Republican  party  is  in 
favor  of  all  police  legislation  intended  to  secure  proper  tene- 
ments for  the  poor,  to  prevent  the  employment  of  children  at  too 
early  an  age,  to  secure  proper  hygienic  conditions  for  the  com-  ^ 
munity  and  especially  for  wage  earners  as  they  work ;  to  remedy 
any  situation  where  circumstances  have  offered  a  temptation  to 
the  employee  to  needless  danger,  to  put  the  employee  on  an 
equality  of  negotiation  with  the  employer,  so  that  through  organi- 
zation and  arbitration  and  in  other  ways  the  employee  may 
secure  equitable  terms;  to  secure  workmen's  compensation  in 
rase  of  injury,  by  which  the  risk  in  dangerous  occupations  carried 
on  for  the  benefit  of  the  public  shall  be  borne  primarily  by  the 
employer  as  incident  to  his  business  and  ultimately  by  the  people, 
who  shall  pay  in  the  increased  price  of  his  product  the  equivalent 
of  such  risk — and,  indeed,  of  all  practical,  so-called  collective 
legislation  of  this  general  character."  A  glance  at  several  recent 
national  platforms  of  the  Republican  party  fairly  supports  Mr. 
Taft  in  his  statement  as  to  most,  if  not  all,  of  these  subjects  for 
which  his  party  is  alleged  to  stand. 

The  Progressive  party  spread  its  platform  over  much  ground 
and  included  many  subjects  never  before  comprised  in  a  national 
party  platform.  It  included  many  subjects  for  national  ad- 
vocacy which  must  be  settled  by  the  states  alone  singly.  Its 
advocacy  of  woman's  suffrage,  of  a  recall  of  public  officials,  some- 
what indefinite  in  form,  of  the  initiative  and  the  referendum 
caught  the  fancy  of  the  discontented,  of  the  unsuccessful  and  the 


ultra-democratic  as  well  as  of  those  of  the  Republican  party 
dissatisfied  with  it.  This  platform  appealed  also  to  the  men 
and  women  everywhere  regardless  of  condition  who  believe  in 
equality  and  justice  under  the  law. 

Some  of  its  measures  have  found  an  enduring  place  in 
American  politics  and  American  policies.  Thus,  woman's  suf- 
frage is  to  be  enacted  into  the  statutes  of  every  state,  as  is  some 
form  of  the  initiative  and  the  referendum.  The  spirit  of  this 
platform  is  not  socialistic  or  revolutionary  but  rather  that  of  the 
sincere  seeker  after  truth  and  righteousness  in  matters  govern- 
mental. 

The  great  majority  of  those  who  supported  Roosevelt  and 
Johnson  in  1912  were  not  fanatics  or  irrationals.  They  were  of 
the  men  and  women  who  believe  that  if  democracy  be  a  good 
thing,  then  the  more  we  have  of  it  under  a  republican  form  of 
government  the  better,  and  that,  if  for  some  it  be  very  good, 
pure  and  undefiled,  then  this  type,  so  far  as  our  form  of  govern- 
ment will  permit,  is  the  kind  we  all  need  and  have  long  sought. 

(2)  What  is  the  true  and  correct  function  of  government 
has,  of  course,  for  always  been  a  mooted  question.  An  agency 
should  in  every  instance  be  definite,  precise  and  well  understood 
by  principal  and  agent.  This  agency,  called  government,  which 
we  all  create  and  establish  and  perpetuate  at  such  tremendous 
cost,  we  should  all  accurately  apprehend  and  understand.  We 
should  know  what  we  expect  from  it  and  make  it  do  for  us  all 
that  we  contract.  The  agency  must  be  exclusive;  i.  e.,  we  can 
have  only  one  at  any  one  time.  The  agents  who  act  for  us  under 
the  contract  we  make  with  ourselves  must  know  what  we  expect 
from  them  and  just  what  this  contract  demands  of  them.  They 
should  be  worthy  of  their  hire  and  also  worthy  of  their  em- 
ployers. Aside  from  whatever  pay  they  receive,  as  citizens  they 
work  for  themselves  as  well  as  for  us.  We  have  full  power  to 
extend  the  scope  of  this  agency  as  we  find  it  reasonable  and  ex- 
pedient. 

In  other  phrase,  the  question  is  just  what  and  how  much 
do  we  want  others  to  do  for  us  in  matters  political  and  govern- 
mental. The  most  of  us  really  do  not  know.  We  dread 
changes  in  matters  of  government.  We  fear  the  cost,  but  most 


of  all  we  fear  that  our  agents  may  forget  we  are  principals 
and  may  override  and  oppress  us,  their  masters,  as  so  many  times 
h;is  happened.  We  create  a  legislative  innovation,  then  wait 
almost  in  alarm  for  the  result  from  our  own  creation.  The  ap- 
parent truism  here  needs  to  be  written  that  the  true  function  ^ 
of  government  is  to  give  us  all  we  can  obtain  of  benefits  through 
this  kind  of  agency. 

We  could  do  all  the  work  of  government  individually  or  in 
small  groups,  but  there  are  too  many  of  us,  so  we  require  the 
concentrated,  concerted,  highly  intelligent  action  of  large  num- 
bers to  obtain  the  results  needful  to  a  people  gregarious  and 
multitudinous.  Parties  are  formed  primarily  to  ascertain  the 
most  desirable  in  governmental  functions,  then  to  try  to  put 
these  into  operation.  Primarily,  too,  parties  are  for  the  benefit 
of  the  whole  people ;  really,  they  are  often  a  medium  to  further 
the  ambitions  of  a  few.  Primarily,  again,  and  analytically,  they 
are  solely  a  means  to  an  end. 

We  often  merge  and  confound  them  with  the  end.  This  is 
because  of  lack  of  careful  analysis,  habitual  with  many.  It  is, 
further,  because  of  the  habit  of  the  centuries,  which  has  become 
an  unfortunate,  disastrous  custom,  to  elevate  matters  govern- 
mental above  their  correct  positions.  It  is  not  many  years  ago 
that  an  emperor  of  Germany  stated  publicly  upon  his  accession 
to  the  throne  that  he  obtained  his  authority  to  rule  from  God 
Almighty  and  from  no  one  else.  The  people  of  his  country  were 
solely  to  blame  for  the  conditions  producing  this  statement.  But 
they  knew  no  better  and  the  custom  of  the  centuries  was  the  child 
of  ignorance  in  the  people  and  of  a  desire  in  the  rulers  to  create 
awe  and  reverance  in  those  they  wished  to  rule  that  their  own 
positions  might  be  safer. 

When  Russian  soldiers  fight  and  die  on  the  battle-field, 
they  are  usually  actuated  not  so  much  by  patriotism,  pure  and 
simple,  as  by  the  thought  that  the  "Little  Father"  of  Russia  de- 
mands the  sacrifice  and  that  their  lives  are  forfeit  to  his  will. 
Here  again,  a  people  have  almost  deified  that  which  they  created. 
They  are  but  little  wiser  than  the  east  Indian  who  fashions 
the  clay  image,  then  bows  down  before  the  work  of  his  own  hands. 
Close  analysis  in  matters  of  government  has  been  almost  as  rare 


as  in  matters  of  religion.  The  transitory,  subservient  means  are 
merged  in  the  expected,  desired  *nd.  There  is  nothing  holy, 
sacred  or  sanctimonious  in  a  government.  Like  the  clay  with 
which  we  make  the  image,  we  may  mould  and  shape  it  as  we  will. 
Nor  is  there  anything  sacred  or  sanctimonious  in  the  men  who 
connect  themselves  with  governments,  usually  to  satisfy  personal 
ambitions. 

(3)  A  few  years  ago  we  were  beginning  to  place  parties — 
the  mere  temporary  association  of  men  for  expediency — upon 
an  elevation  dangerous  to  our  intelligence  and  political  safety. 
If  the  mission  of  the  Progressive  party  has  stopped  with  this, 
it  has  done  an  excellent  work  in  teaching  the  members  of  the 
Republican  party  that  it  was  composed  of  men,  that  it  lived 
but  in  name  and  was  valuable  simply  as  it  might  serve  those  who 
lived  in  the  country  where  it  had  this  kind  of  being. 

More,  the  principles  of  the  Progressive  party,  nailed  auda- 
ciously on  the  front  door  of  public  opinion,  have  moved  the  people 
to  demand  and  to  have  works  of  their  public  agents.  The  other 
parties  are  zealous  to  be  regarded  as  highly  "progressive."  No 
candidate  for  a  public  office,  but,  at  least  in  an  indefinite  de- 
gree, is  ' '  progressive. ' ' 

The  Republican  party  had  its  origin  in  the  storm  and  strife 
of  impending  rebellion  through  the  demand  for  a  party  that 
should  stand  in  the  name  of  the  people  against  the  political 
theories  of  one  section  which  would  upbuild  the  aristocracy  of 
the  slave  owner  as  the  type  of  an  American  citizen.  It  main- 
tained that  the  national  government  had  the  power  to  control 
slavery  in  the  territories  and  that  the  government  should  prevent 
its  further  extension.  It  stood  for  a  protective  tariff,  for  in- 
ternal improvements  and  a  system  of  national  bank  currency.  It 
was  the  party  of  the  common  people,  of  the  everyday  man. 
As  such  it  led  in  fighting  the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  in  reconstruct- 
ing the  states  and  in  reestablishing  our  currency  on  January  1st, 
1879.  The  era  of  prosperity  and  development  under  the  very 
wise  rule  of  the  Republican  party  has  been  without  parallel  in 
the  history  of  any  other  country. 

But  many  of  the  men,  prominent  in  the  Republican  party, 
have  been  content  to  rest  much  upon  the  past.  The  marvelous 


history  of  the  country  and  its  progress  under  Republicanism,  the 
great  work  of  the  party  in  fighting  the  war  and  in  upbuilding 
our  industries  under  a  protective  tariff  have  been  until  a  few 
years  the  themes  of  Republican  orators  in  every  campaign.  The 
vital  questions  of  labor  and  of  capital,  of  limitations  on  the 
power  of  monopolizing  corporations  and  of  increased  participa- 
tion by  the  people  directly  in  government  have  been  too  often 
passed  over  by  both  the  two  great  parties  merely  with  resolutions 
in  their  party  platforms. 

Again,  the  taint  of  official  unfaithfulness  has  attached  itself 
to  a  number  of  men  high  in  the  ranks  of  Republicanism.  The 
alleged  connection  of  Senator  Foraker,  of  Senator  Hanna.  Senator 
Penrose,  Congressman  Jo.  Sibley  of  Pennsylvania  and  of  other 
prominent  Republicans  with  Standard  Oil  in  an  improper  man- 
ner and  the  expulsion  of  Senator  Lorimer  from  the  United  States 
Senate  for  buying  his  way  into  office  injured  very  much  the 
party  to  which  these  men  belonged.  The  odor  of  suspicion  con- 
nected itself  with  many  of  the  great  leaders  of  the  Republican 
party. 

The  administration  of  President  Taft  intensified  this.  He 
was  elected  under  the  supposition  that  in  policy  he  was  another 
Roosevelt.  The  promises  of  the  Republican  platform  of  1908 
were  not  kept  in  the  legislation  of  the  Payne  Aldrich  Tariff  Act 
and  in  the  later  vetoes  by  President  Taft  of  the  attempted  re- 
vision by  honest,  progressive  Republicans  of  the  woolen  schedule. 
He  repeatedly  termed  this  schedule  an  "indefensible"  outrage, 
but  twice  in  one  year  he  stood  between  the  people  and  substantial 
relief  from  the  oppression  of  these  duties  and  finally  rejected  a 
bill  drawn  on  the  protective  lines  advocated  by  the  Republican 
party  in  1908.  His  reciprocity  treaty  with  Canada  was  for  the 
benefit  of  the  manufacturer  but  not  for  the  benefit  of  the  farmer. 
His  lack  of  support  of  Dr.  Wiley  in  his  administration  of  the  pure 
food  law  laid  him  open  to  general  criticism.  The  alleged  connec- 
tion of  Secretary  of  the  Interior  Ballinger  with  the  Guggenheims 
in  Alaska  coal  deals  brought  considerable  suspicion  and  censure 
upon  the  administration.  Also,  every  progressive  Republican 
seeking  reelection  to  Congress  was  made  to  feel  that  the  powerful 
influence  of  the  National  administration  was  cast  against  him. 


These  factors  in  the  official  service  of  President  Taft  served 
to  a  considerable  extent  to  overcome,  or  neutralize,  the  positive 
excellencies  of  his  work,  notable  in  favor  of  international  arbi- 
tration, the  Working  Man's  Liability  Law,  the  Postal  Savings 
Bank  and  a  Parcel  Post. 

Moreover,  in  the  Middle  West  had  arisen  a  new  order  of 
public  servants  and  so  a  new  order  of  public  service,  La  Follette 
and  Dolliver,  Cummins  and  Bristow,  Beveridge  and  Hadley. 
Clapp,  Murdock  and  Borah  and  a  few  others  with  them  were 
templars  that  stood  always  in  the  ring  and,  wearing  the  cross 
of  the  only  true  faith,  were  ever  ready  to  break  a  lance  against 
the  enemies  of  political  truth  and  righteousness.  For  them  no 
project  too  hazardous,  no  work  of  toil  too  arduous,  no  sacrifice 
too  great  connected  with  the  public  advantage  and  service. 

Senator  La  Follette  has  made  his  ' '  Weekly ' '  of  wide  circula- 
tion. He  advocates  new  measures  for  the  public  benefit  constantly 
and  earnestly.  His  work  bears  the  * i  Guinea  Stamp ' '  of  an  almost 
fearful  research  and  care.  He  spares  neither  friend  nor  foe  in 
his  cold,  pitiless  analysis  of  conditions  and  men.  Yet  by  en- 
dowment and  acquisition  he  possesses  a  sterling  common  sense 
on  most  matters  and  the  wisdom  to  know  and  choose  aright.  His 
paper  has  tremendous  educative  power  and  influence,  especially 
in  the  central  part  of  the  United  States. 

A  new  political  thought  and  attitude  arose.  Men  saw  that 
these  agents  of  the  public  just  indicated,  though  of  great  ability 
and  industry,  were  not  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  in  Con- 
gress or  out.  They  noted  that  when  these  representatives  of 
theirs  who  were  senators  spoke  from  the  floor  in  advocacy  of 
measures  of  vital  public  importance,  the  Republican  leaders  in 
the  Senate  absented  themselves  from  attendance  and  that  the 
utmost  of  endeavor  in  reproof  and  repression  was  used  by  these 
same  leaders  against  the  senators  of  the  people  striving  to  reach 
the  best  for  those  in  whose  interest,  they  held  office,  worked  and 
wrought. 

The  people  of  the  country  came  to  believe  that  the  Republi- 
can administration  and  the  leaders  of  the  party  were  out  of 
touch  with  them.  The  majority  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  party 
believed  that  party  platforms  were  meaningless  and  deceptive 


and  that,  though  many  measures  were  enacted  beneficial  to  the 
people,  when  issue  was  made  over  a  measure  as  between  the 
public  good  and  the  good  of  those,  rather  indefinitely  character- 
ized as  "the  interests,"  the  latter  almost  invariably  received  the 
preference.  Many  Republicans  felt  they  were  being  betrayed  by 
the  men  they  long  had  trusted  and  that  a  great  party  name  was 
often  but  a  pretense  to  deception  and  fraud. 

Still  again,  the  accession  of  Theodore  Roosevelt  to  the  presi- 
dency was  heralded  as  unwelcome  to  the  leaders  of  the  Republi- 
can party  on  the  ground  that  he  was  "unsafe,"  yet  most  men 
failed  to  note  that  this  "unsafeness"  consisted  in  anything  else 
than  energy,  determination  and  honesty  in  the  public  service. 
During  the  seven  years  of  his  administration  of  the  office  the  in- 
terests of  the  many  as  opposed  to  the  interests  of  the  few,  which 
had  been  exemplified  in  the  preceding  administration  in  the  per- 
son of  Mark  Hanna,  received  adequate  attention.  The  majority 
of  the  people  recognized  that  they  had  a  man  of  their  own  at  the 
head  of  the  nation  and  resolved  to  elect  no  other  kind  thereafter. 
The  sharp  contrast  between  his  administration  and  that  of  Presi- 
dent Taft  added  to  the  disappointment  and  disaffection  of  Re- 
publicans and  gave  further  cause  and  occasion  for  the  tremen- 
dous votes  in  1912  for  Wilson  and  Marshall  and  for  Roosevelt 
and  Johnson. 

The  people  noted,  also,  that  the  man,  who  more  than  any 
other  dominated  the  Republican  National  Convention  of  1912  and 
the  Republican  National  Campaign  of  that  year,  was  Boss  Barnes, 
who  lays  tribute  upon  vice  and  crime  in  his  own  Albany,  New 
York,  and  makes  these  pay  their  tainted  shekels  into  his  own 
coffers,  swelled  by  political  corruption.  They  saw  that  the  man 
who  stood  next  to  Barnes  in  all  this  was  the  notorious  Penrose. 

The  citizens  voted  in  large  numbers  for  Roosevelt  and 
Johnson  because  they  stood  actually  and  honestly  for  clearer, 
truer  democracy  than  did  the  candidates  of  the  Republican  party, 
because  they  were  great  leaders,  men  of  action  and  of  power,  with 
the  people  and  of  them.  Very  many  regarded  these  leaders  as 
crusaders  fighting  under  the  banner  of  the  faith  of  the  free. 
Their  armor  was  always  on  and  their  lances  at  rest.  Their  places 
always  had  been  in  the  lists  against  the  enemies  of  the  common, 


average  man.  "The  fierce  light  which  beats  upon  a  throne"  had 
not  been  more  intense  than  that  which  for  many  years  had  been 
turned  upon  them.  Under  this  their  honesty  of  public  purpose 
and  faithfulness  to  duty  had  been  determined  to  be  without 
stain. 

(4)  Yet  Ex-President  Taft  in  the  article  mentioned,  of 
date  February  14th.  1914.  wrote  "We  must  direct  our  energies 
toward  the  amendment  of  the  present  banking  and  currency  act 
that  shall  furnish  an  elastic  medium  automatically  adjusting  it- 
self to  the  needs  of  business  without  giving  too  arbitrary  control 
to  the  government :  a  wise  system  for  conservation  of  our  national 
resources;  the  reform  of  judicial  procedure,  eliminating  its  de- 
lays and  reducing  its  costs ;  the  greater  supervision  of  the  busi- 
ness of.  and  the  issue  of  securities  by.  corporations  in  interstate 
business  and  the  continued  enforcement  of  the  antitrust  law; 
laws  providing  workmen's  compensation  for  interstate  railroad 
companies  and  regulating  the  relations  between  them  and  their 
employees,  to  prevent  strikes,  so  far  as  possible  and  to  secure 
safety  in  operation  for  the  public  and  the  employees :  the  taking 
of  all  local  Federal  officers  and  all  but  department  heads  and 
under  secretaries  out  of  politics  by  putting  them  in  the  classi- 
fied service;  the  improvement  of  rivers  and  harbors  by  a  com- 
pleted plan  and  a  levee  system  for  the  Mississippi :  the  enactment 
of  model  laws  for  the  District  of  Columbia,  as  to  the  control  of 
public  utilities ;  the  maintenance  of  the  public  health,  on  the  us- 
of  child  labor,  the  regulation  of  tenement  house  construction,  in- 
vestigation and  arbitration  of  labor  disputes  and  the  conduct  of 
vocational  education ;  of  playgrounds  and  of  charitable  and  penal 
institutions;  the  enlargement  of  the  Bureau  of  Education  into  a 
means  of  publishing  to  the  world  the  exact  condition  of  education 
in  every  state  with  a  view  to  stimulating  much  needed  progr 
in  thorough  primary  and  vocational  training ;  the  stimulation  of 
the  merchant  marine,  the  creation  and  maintenance  of  a  perma- 
nent tariff  commission  with  adequate  power  to  report  the  f act- 
to  the  operation  of  the  tariff:  the  adoption  of  a  budget  system 
and  a  plan  for  making  government  administration  economical 
and  efficient;  the  maintenance  of  an  adequate  army  and  navy: 
the  conferring  on  the  Federal  government  power  to  perform  our 


treaty  obligations  to  aliens  by  punishing  those  who  violate  them; 
the  adoption  and  pursuit  of  a  foreign  policy  that  shall  give  us 
influence  to  aid  China  and  our  American  neighbors  in  maintain- 
ing just  and  peaceful  governments.' 

These  are  some  of  the  constructive  reforms  to  which  the 
Republican  party  will  address  itself  when  it  shall  secure  again 
the  mandate  of  the  people  ;  but  before  and  of  higher  importance 
than  all  of  these  is  the  rescue  of  the  country  from  the  serious 
danger  to  which  it  is  exposed  in  this  attempted  undermining  of 
our  stable,  civil  liberty." 

Nearly  all  of  what  Mr.  Taft  urges  is  highly  desirable  for 
the  United  States.  Place  it.  just  as  he  expresses  it,  before  the 
national  conventions  of  the  three  great  political  parties  in  the 
United  States  when  next  they  shall  gather,  and  the  vote  will 
be  overwhelmingly  favorable  to  the  adoption  of  these  as  "some 
of  the  constructive  reforms"  to  which  each  party  is  to  address 
itself,  as  Mr.  Taft  is  to  have  his  party  turn,  after  it  has  suffici- 
ently "viewed  with  alarm"  the  attempt  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  to  obtain  a  purer,  truer  democracy. 

(5)  Therefore,  while  the  new  party  has  gone  considerably 
in  advance  of  the  two  old  parties  in  advocating  constructive  legis- 
lation giving  the  people  more  direct  participation  in  the  govern- 
ment, the  causes  of  the  overwhelming,  ignominious  defeat,  of 
1912.  which  gave  the  Republican  presidential  candidates  only 
Utah  and  Vermont  and  put  the  party  far  down  the  minority 
column  in  Congress,  were  due  rather  to  men  than  to  party  prin- 
ciples, to  the  records  of  public  agents  rather  than  to  a  lack  of 
definite,  adequate  powers  given  these  agents. 

The  writer,  a  progressive  Republican,  who  with  reluctance 
supported  Roosevelt  and  Johnson  in  1912  and  who  has  since 
talked  with  many  hundreds  of  Republicans,  Progressives  and 
Democrats  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  suggests,  though 
it  be  Qiitrljjv^)^t  least,  desirable  for  the  rehabilita- 
tion of  the  Republican  party  that  it  be  "reorganized,"  as  several 
—  and  notably  Sen^toiiCummins  —  have  urged,  yet  more  than 
this,  that  the  tt^eof  the  party  must  be  "reorganized." 


An  overwhelming  majority  of  the  party  think  right  and  are 
right    on   matters   political   and   governmental.     This   majority. 


under  principles  heretofore  named,  determines  the  character  of 
the  party  and  for  what  it  actually  stands;  a  few  men  who  by 
political  mischance  get  into  Congress  or  political  leadership  in  no 
degree  determine  this.  A  genuine  "government  of  the  people, 
by  the  people  and  for  the  people"  which,  like  Christianity,  never 
has  been  tried  except  in  spots,  a  majority  of  the  Republican 
party  desire  to  make  real  and  effective  in  the  United  States. 

Progressive  Republicanism  actually  means  that  the  people 
rule,  usually  through  their  accredited  representatives,  but  that, 
where  experience  has  proven  it  safer  or  more  effective  to  conduct 
some  part  of  the  machinery  of  government  by  direct  action  of 
the  people,  or  by  final  appeal  to  the  people,  our  form  of  govern- 
ment was  devised  and  intended  to  enable  this  to  be  done;  and 
that  when  our  fathers  framed  the  Constitution,  they  planned  it  to 
be  the  medium  for  the  preservation  of  the  liberties  of  the  people, 
not  one  for  the  subversion  of  their  rights  under  a  complexity  of 
routine,  behind  which  the  invisible  government  lurks  and  con- 
trols. 

Changes  in  party  platforms  and  in  constitution  of  national 
conventions  are  now  but  matters  of  paper  and  of  promise.  They 
reach  not  the  essence  of  the  weakness.  The  suspicious  distrust 
and  unbelief  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  have  gone  too 
deep  to  be  reached  effectively  by  these.  The  voters  want  to  see 
men  put  in  party  prominence  whose  valor  has  been  tried  often 
and  often  in  their  behalf  on  the  great  battle-fields  of  politics 
and  of  statesmanship. 

Only  by  the  Republican  party  electing  such  men  to  public 
leadership  may  it  be  "reorganized"  satisfactorily  to  those  who 
love  its  history  of  achievement,  trust  its  membership  and  have 
hope  in  its  future  of  service  to  the  United  States.  So  only  may 
it  be  "reorganized"  to  meet  the  desires  of  any  honest  American 
citizen  looking  with  careful  scrutiny  upon  the  record  of  events 
to  determine  how  and  for  whom  he  ought  to  vote  at  popular 
elections. 
San  Francisco,  California,  May  15,  J914. 


!  ow  •-"-  T.AST  DATE 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


RENEWALS  nwiv 

'^l-TT/M.^     VJlNLl       - 

Tcf.  NO.  642-3405 

ICLF 

N) 

LD  2lA-45m-9,'67 
(H5067slO)476B 


(H5067slO)4 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

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